PORTLAND, Maine — Senator Susan Collins joined leaders of Puritan Medical Products and Cianbro Thursday to announce a new manufacturing partnership that will double Puritan’s production of testing swabs from 20 million per month to 40 million per month during the coronavirus pandemic. Bath Iron Works will be supplying 30 of the 40 machines needed to make the new swabs.
Puritan was awarded $75.5 million through the CARES Act, which included $1 billion for the Defense Production Act in order to increase domestic production capacity for materials necessary to combat COVID-19. The funding will be used to convert a 95,000 square foot warehouse owned by Cianbro into a modern manufacturing facility. The company plans to add 150 people to its current 500-person workforce to staff the new factory.
Puritan and its subcontractors will work to start production by the end of May.
“We are proving once again that Maine-made is best-made," Collins said. "The sooner we can expand testing, the sooner we can help reduce the spread of the virus and safely reopen our economy.”
Thursday morning, Senator Collins visited Puritan’s existing manufacturing facility in Guilford to thank the employees for all of their hard work producing testing supplies that are vital to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 and safely re-open the economy. Senator Collins also toured the manufacturing facility.
At NEWS CENTER Maine, we're focusing our news coverage on the facts and not the fear around the illness. To see our full coverage, visit our coronavirus section, here: /coronavirus
